The Central Okanagan saw another large spike in COVID-19 cases last week.
According to more granular, local health area data now released by the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) on a weekly basis, from Dec. 6–12, the region from Peachland through Lake Country saw 349 new cases of the virus, an 11 per cent increase from the 314 noted the week before.
The Interior Health region as a whole noted 568 cases in the most recent data, meaning the Central Okanagan is responsible for 62 per cent of the week’s case count. The Central Okanagan also has the highest population density among all communities in Interior Health.
To the south, a care home outbreak in Oliver is inflating numbers in the South Okanagan local health area, which is noted as having 54 cases through the week.
Around the rest of the Okanagan, the Penticton area recorded 34 cases, Summerland noted seven, Kettle Valley reported 11 and Vernon had 36.
While the numbers in the Central Okanagan are high, with almost 50 cases a day per 100,000 population, it’s still much lower than Surrey, the province’s hardest-hit local health area where health officials identified 1,484 cases last week.
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